In the early morning hours of Independence Day, a group of students assembled in downtown Rochester, New York to state a simple truth outside the headquarters of Planned Parenthood for Upstate and Western New York. The students from the Rochester area Students for Life groups joined with the Fredrick Douglass Foundation of New York and Feminists Choosing Life of New York on the anniversary of the most famous speech to be delivered in their city. In 1852, Fredrick Douglass delivered the speech “What to the Slave is the 4th of July?” in Rochester. Following in the footsteps of our great Rochester forebearers the students ask the question: What is the 4th of July to the pre-born?

The message, Black Preborn Lives Matter, was vandalized.

In a state where abortion is legal until the point of birth for any or no reason, the answer to this question is bound to be bleak. On the 4th of July we remember the words of our country’s founders, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Click here to watch the video of pro-lifers painting the message. 

Not that we are made equal after reaching a certain stage or by being “wanted” but that we are CREATED equal, from the indisputable moment of our creation. Not that we are granted rights by government after proving ourselves worthy of them but that we are ENDOWED with INALIENABLE RIGHTS, the first and cornerstone of which is the right to life.

We remember “that to secure these rights” (the first of which is the right to life) “Governments are instituted among men” and “That when any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the people’s right to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government.” To state that the government of New York has failed to secure these rights is undeniable. To state that the government of New York has been destructive of these ends is an understatement. To state that the government of New York should be altered is obvious.

The Declaration of Independence reads, “All experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” However, for the generation of survivors these evils have never been sufferable, nor will they be. When a child can be legally killed for the first 9 months of his/her life, how can we stand by in silence? When a deeply racist organization establishes eugenic facilities with government funding, how can we not speak up? When an entire quarter (or more) of our generation is not with us because they were deemed unworthy of life, how can we not fight for the next generation?

“Let facts be submitted to a candid world.” The fact is that Black Pre-Born Lives Matter. This is the undeniable truth that has been painted in front of the Planned Parenthood abortion facility in downtown Rochester. At a time in our country when the issue of inequality is at the forefront of everyone’s minds, we must stand up for the most vulnerable and oppressed people in our society. Pre-born children have been stripped of their humanity by the state of New York because of their physical appearance. A statue of Fredrick Douglass was torn down in Rochester the same week, and yet the buildings that house oppression and death still stand.

It seems darkly appropriate that Planned Parenthood, the organization that has killed infinitely more African Americans than any other racist organization in history, has the word “preborn” blotted out right in front  of their facility. Planned Parenthood, the organization founded on the principle to “exterminate the Negro population,” no doubt agrees with the vandal’s black paint that marks which black lives matter and which ones don’t. Planned Parenthood, the organization that feels it has the right to endow inalienable rights, overlooks a hateful message towards the preborn.

Guest post by Ben Chernjavsky, President of Monroe Community College Students for Life